Lilo and Stitch (Disney) 2002
- The mouse house that roared [Review]
(Sydney Morning Herald, September 21, 2002)
By Garry Maddox
HOLLYWOOD'S most famous animation studio, Walt Disney Pictures, knows its latest film needs some selling. You only have to look at the television commercials that have been running this week. A tiny alien creature called Stitch crashes scenes from such popular Disney films as Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid. The message is clear: even if it seems different, Lilo and Stitch comes from the animation house that Walt Disney built. The Mouse House, as it is known in Hollywood, after Mickey Mouse, its founder's first great creation. ... When Lilo and Stitch opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, it showed how Disney is fighting back in the computer-generated animation revolution. It also showed how much the animation business has changed in Hollywood. That's because Lilo and Stitch is a surprising Disney film in lots of ways. It's partly a contemporary Hawaiian family tale about an orphaned girl and her older sister who come to the attention of a social worker. The girl, Lilo, bites, punches and makes voodoo dolls of her friends. It's also a science fiction story about a runaway genetic experiment who crashes to earth and wants somewhere to belong. To add to the strange brew, the soundtrack is full of Elvis songs.
In a computer-generated (3-D) era, Lilo and Stitch is also hand-drawn (2-D) with watercolour backgrounds - a technique not used in a Disney feature film since Dumbo in 1941. And rather than having idealised human characters - the type of animation that saw Pocohontas resemble Indian Barbie - they look remarkably well rounded. ... Even amid cultural change, the studio's family values came to the fore.
- Animated ET visits Hawaii [Review: awarded 2 stars]
(Canberra Times, Panorama Section p. 14, September 21, 2002)
By Dougal Macdonald
Filmed in a visual style that owes as much to Japanese manga as to any other influence, Lilo and Stitch mixes scurrying sci-fi with the emotional comfort that comes from being among people who love you. ... The age cohort Lilo and Stitch set out to target is hard to fathom. On a mums-with-bubs discount day, few were at the session I watched. That the group of intellectually impaired young adults in the row behind me had no trouble relating to it and enjoying it speaks volumes about their comfort of mind in front of it. For me, the best element of the screening was their smiling hellos to me as we trooped out.
- Here comes yet another Hawaii-themed movie
(Pacific Business News, September 10, 2002)
It doesn't end with 'Lilo & Stitch,' 'Blue Crush,' 'Baywatch Hawaiian Wedding' or other movies of this Hawaii-themed year for Hollywood. Warner Brothers has decided to make a movie based on "The Big Bounce," an Elmore Leonard novel set on the North Shore, the Hollywood newspaper Variety reports.
- Lilo, Stitch and Elvis: Taking care of business
By Woody Baird
(Orlando Sentinel / Associated Press, June 27, 2002)
Most of them were born a decade or two after Elvis Presley died. ... (as below)
- Disney Introduces Elvis to a New Generation
(Fox News, June 26, 2002)
Most of them were born a decade or two after Elvis Presley died. ... (as below)
- Disney flick, remix making Elvis a hit again
(Daily Herald / Associated Press, June 26, 2002)
Most of them were born a decade or two after Elvis Presley died. ... (as below)
- Hit movie introduces Elvis to a new generation
By WOODY BAIRD
(Nando Times / Associated Press, June 26, 2002)
Most of them were born a decade or two after Elvis Presley died. ... (as below)
- Elvis emerges for a new generation
(CNN, June 25, 2002)
Most of them were born a decade or two after Elvis Presley died. But the kids watching Disney's new "Lilo & Stitch" at a screening in Memphis got a chuckle when the small blue space alien Stitch did an Elvis impersonation in a white jumpsuit. And that made the folks from Graceland happy, too. "We're going to have millions of young kids discovering Elvis and asking their parents if they've ever heard of this guy," said Jack Soden, president of Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. It's a big year for Graceland, the center of a multimillion-dollar business owned by Elvis' sole heir, Lisa Marie Presley. August16 is the 25th anniversary of Presley's death in 1977 at the Memphis mansion, and he is already getting new attention. This week, RCA Records released a version of his 1968 "A Little Less Conversation" to radio and commercial outlets. "Elvis vs. JXL -- a Little Less Conversation," remixed into a techno groove by Junkie XL, has already hit No. 1 in Britain. Also this week, RCA/BMG Heritage released a four-CD box set, "Elvis: Today, Tomorrow & Forever," with 100 previously unreleased tracks, mostly alternate takes of lesser-known material. And an album of Elvis' 30 No. 1 hits is due out in September.
- McComb: 'Lilo & Stitch' go well with Elvis
By M. SCOTT MORRIS
(Daily Journal, June 25, 2002)
With its newest animated release, "Lilo & Stitch," Disney is spreading Elvis Presley's music to a whole new audience. That's a very good thing, according to Janelle McComb, retired chairperson of Tupelo's Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation. She was invited to a screening of the PG-rated movie this past Thursday at the Peabody Place in Memphis. "Then we went to a party at Graceland," McComb said, "and I want to tell you that was the biggest, most massive party I've ever seen."
- Hula Harmony' prevails at lavish Disney luau: strictly pleasure
(Commercial Appeal, June 24, 2002)
Shortly after he put a fiery knife to his tongue, Nue Kahele relaxed and got a bite to eat. Nue was one of the performers at a lavish luau Thursday night in front of the ticket pavilion at Graceland. The private party thrown by Walt Disney Pictures followed the Memphis premiere of Disney's Lilo & Stitch, an invitation-only showing at Muvico in Peabody Place. Recordings of Elvis songs are included in the animated movie. ... Departing guests received goodie bags, which included a CD of the soundtrack to Lilo & Stitch and the video of the 1961 Elvis movie, Blue Hawaii.
- A box office photo finish and questions of methodology
By Rick Lyman
(New York Times, June 24, 2002)
In the first major weekend box-office duel of the year, the eagerly anticipated pairing of Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg in "Minority Report" has narrowly beaten Disney's animated "Lilo and Stitch" after a tense 24 hours in which many in Hollywood expected the Disney film to confound pre-release expectations and emerge triumphant. In final, official figures released today, "Minority Report" earned $35.7 million over the weekend, about in line with pre-release tracking polls. "Lilo and Stitch" sold $35.3 million worth of tickets, several million dollars more than the tracking had suggested but not enough to supplant Mr. Spielberg. As Disney pointed out today, though, since there were undoubtedly many more children at its film than at "Minority Report," and since children's tickets cost much less than adult tickets, this photo finish almost certainly shows that more people actually went to "Lilo and Stitch."
- Cruise, Spielberg sci-fi thriller tops box office
(CNN, June 23, 2002)
The superstar pairing of Cruise and Spielberg humbled at the North American box office by a cartoon starring a Hawaiian girl and an alien? In a declaration disputed by virtually everyone else in Hollywood, director Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report," a sci-fi thriller starring Tom Cruise, claimed a slim victory Sunday over Walt Disney Co.'s animated "Lilo & Stitch." "Minority Report" grossed an estimated $36.9 million in its first three days beginning Friday, according to its domestic distributor, Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of Fox Entertainment Group Inc. The film cost $102 million to make.
Disney said "Lilo & Stitch" made $35.8 million in its first three days, a figure that exceeded most studios' estimates for "Minority Report." Indeed, Disney claimed victory and expected final figures released Monday would bear it out. Officials at the studio were less than impressed with Fox's claims. "We truly believe we were No. 1," said Disney distribution president Chuck Viane. "We're both public companies, and I'm confident the estimates will be corrected on Monday morning." "I don't blame them. I'd be upset too," responded Bruce Snyder, Fox's president of distribution. He added the race was too close to call, and he was happy to call it a tie, especially since his own forecast had "Lilo & Stitch" just $100,000 behind "Minority Report."
- Walt Disney Records is All Shook Up Over "Lilo & Stitch'' Soundtrack and "Read-Along''
(Yahoo News / Walt Disney Records, June 3, 2002)
Walt Disney Records introduces the legendary music of Elvis Presley to a new generation of fans on the all-new "Lilo & Stitch" soundtrack and "Read-Along," which features music from the highly anticipated animated film due out this summer from Walt Disney Pictures. The soundtrack showcases a score by Academy AwardŽ-nominated composer Alan Silvestri, five classic Elvis Presley songs, plus newly recorded renditions of "Burning Love" by Grammy Award-winning artist Wynonna and "Can't Help Falling in Love" by A*Teens. Both the soundtrack and the "Lilo & Stitch Read-Along" will be available at [US] retail outlets nationwide beginning June 11, 2002.
- Elvis Tracks Burn Up 'Lilo & Stitch' Soundtrack
By Barry A. Jeckell; edited by Jonathan Cohen
(Billboard, May 24, 2002)
Songs by Elvis Presley, as well as Elvis songs by Wynonna and the A*Teens make up the soundtrack to the forthcoming animated Walt Disney Pictures film "Lilo & Stitch." Due June 11 via Walt Disney Records, the album also leans on the film's lush Hawaiian setting with two songs by Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu and the Kamehameha Schools Children's Chorus. Wynonna covers Presley's "Burning Love," while the Stockholm-based A*Teens take on the King's "Can't Help Falling in Love," which will be heard over the movie's end credits. Five Presley recordings, including "Hound Dog" and "Heartbreak Hotel," and three pieces from the Alan Silvestri-composed score round out the release. "Lilo & Stitch" centers around a lonely Hawaiian girl obsessed with Elvis who adopts what she thinks is an ugly dog, but is really a mischievous alien -- a genetic experiment who escaped and crash landed on Earth. [A track listing of the songs is supplied.]
- NEWS - A*Teens Cover Elvis On 'Pop 'Til You Drop'
By Jason Gelman
(Yahoo.com, May 21, 2002)
The debut single from the A*Teens third MCA Records album, Pop 'Til You Drop (due June 18), is a cover of the Elvis Presley classic, "Can't Help Falling In Love." The Swedish pop quartet recently wrapped work on the song's music video with director Gregory Dark in Santa Clarita, California. "Can't Help Falling In Love" will also be featured on the soundtrack to the upcoming Disney animated film, Lilo & Stitch, marking the first time the group has contributed music to a Disney movie. Lilo & Stitch premieres in theaters nationwide on June 21.
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